Why wills are rubbish

badger09

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

We own our property as tenants-in-common and have each left our share of the property in trust to our son, with the proviso that the survivor can live there as long as they wish.

Same here, although each 1/2 share is left to our respective sons, as its our 2nd marriage (21 years )

pollypenny wrote: »

We've made will, putting the house etc in trust, with the proviso that the survivor can utilise it unless he/she remarries or cohabits.

I don't want any fancy woman blowing my hard earned pounds.

Never thought about that. Although if any fancy woman is brave enough to take my husband on after I've shuffled off this mortal coil, she'll deserve to share some the fruits of my labours :rotfl:

SevenOfNine

WELLSIANA1962 wrote: »

Let me just clarify the position , Myself , My Sister and My Mums husbands Daughter where all named in their Mirror Will, all named as a third and if passed our children named for the share . Mum passed away , and one year later he rendered her will worthless by changing it , he revoked her , myself and my sister and installed everything into a fund for his daughter only . It is allowed and that is my reason Wills are worthless as she was deceased and had no voice to protect us or herself .

If her will was correctly written, signed & witnessed her husband cannot 'revoke' or render it worthless to cheat you of what would rightfully be yours.

Do you fully understand that she could only leave you assets that where wholly hers? Any bank/savings that were in joint names with her husband become HIS, & she cannot leave them to you regardless of what she puts in her will.

Similarly with a house, if it is owned as 'joint tenants' with her husband, she cannot leave any part of it to you - they own the whole house jointly. So again, regardless of what may be in the will, he gets the whole house.

If it's owned as 'tenants in common' then each person owns a proportion (most likely 50% each), only then could she leave you HER share, because they don't both own the whole thing together.

This doesn't appear to be related to her husband 'revoking' anything, it seems much more likely your mum (granted not deliberately but more like failing to understand), was attempting to leave you assets that were not solely owned by her.

Now if you respond by saying she had her OWN bank/savings accounts (in her sole name) &/or they owned their property as tenants in common, you'll get more sympathetic & informative responses to help you.

TBH I'll leave your second scenario alone, you don't really seem to have fully understood your own let alone someone else's.

Keep_pedalling

The OP obvious does not have a clue about how wills work. I suspect what has happed here is that each will left everything to the other, with the combined estate being split between the children on the second death, but the survivor then changed their own will cutting out the step children, which although is a nasty thing to do is not illegal.

Properly drawn up will with life interest trust would prevent this happening. Had the OPs mother died intestate without a will they would have been in the same boat.